Daily Caller Retracts Report Biden 'Banned' Religious Easter Eggs
By: Alex Griffing Load Comments (Mediaite)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Daily Caller on Tuesday retracted an article claiming that the Biden White House banned "religious Easter eggs" from an art contest at the annual Easter Egg Roll over the weekend.
The claim had spread through right-wing media, even though it was quickly and widely debunked by various fact-checkers and anyone familiar with the history of the event.
"The Biden administration banned children from submitting Easter eggs with religious themes for its 2024 'Celebrating National Guard Families' art contest," read the lede from Julianna Frieman's now-retracted report in the Caller, a hardright publication co-founded by Tucker Carlson.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) shared the headline over the weekend and wrote, "The Biden White House has betrayed the central tenet of Easter — which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Banning sacred truth and tradition—while at the same time proclaiming Easter Sunday as "Transgender Day"—is outrageous and abhorrent. The American people are taking note."
The Biden White House has betrayed the central tenet of Easter — which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Banning sacred truth and tradition—while at the same time proclaiming Easter Sunday as "Transgender Day"—is outrageous and abhorrent. The American people are taking note. pic.twitter.com/ZCExyVkAVS
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) March 30, 2024
"Following the publication of this article, the Daily Caller became aware of additional context that undercut the central assertion of this article and its newsworthiness," read Tuesday's retraction in the Caller, which added:
The ban of religious symbolism on eggs as part of the White House Easter egg art contest has been longstanding, dating back decades, and the Biden administration did not make any modifications to this rule. While the Caller did not explicitly state at any point that the rule was new, this additional context rendered the main thrust of the article misleading to readers, who could reasonably have come to the conclusion that the rule was new.
With that additional context included, the news value of the article was significantly diminished, leading the senior leadership at the Caller to the decision to retract. We sincerely regret the error and are taking the necessary steps to ensure similar mistakes can be avoided in the future.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates responded to the retraction, saying, the publication "did the right thing by retracting this story on the Easter Egg Roll." President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, came under a bevy of attacks from right-wing media over the long-standing rules regarding the Easter egg design contest and for issuing a proclamation for International Transgender Day of Visibility, which has been on March 31st for some 15 years now.
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when i was at my brother's house on easter afternoon some of the MAGA in the group started bringing up that Biden wouldnt allow religious imagery at the white house easter egg hunt.
when i saw this story today i was tempted to text a couple of them with this update, but then thought, realistically, whats the point? there is a never ending supply of this bilge. later today it will be something else.
Why would they ban religious symbolism?
We all know they wouldn't. Except those guilty of PD&D+D
Well, no, according to the article religious symbols have been banned from the Easter Egg art contest for decades. I wonder who instituted the ban and why. Is it because if kids painted crosses on the eggs it might insult some non-Christian kid?
Oh, sorry, usually Greg spouts the opposite of what happened, and usually President Biden is blamed for things that have been happening all along.
tru dat
The only important thing is to make the low information electorate think he did.
So you agree that the right was lying about this.
And Greg thinks MAGAs are low-information voters?
isnt that what he said ?
maybe he misspoke himself
No, that would be Biden voters.
That is not quite true, JR. He did ban Fabergé eggs from Russia.
Basic journalism: call up the accused party and ask them to comment on the story. But - Big Surprise! - none of these assholes did that.
That is because we don't have real journalists anymore.
I would think this ridiculous accusation gets trotted out every four years by whichever party isn’t in the White House, because religion poisons everything. Amazing that a little kids’ annual activity is being slammed for not honoring zombie Jesus.